St Edmund Hall

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St Edmund Hall is a friendly, informal college with a strong sense of community; an excellent place for academic and social life. We admit about 115 undergraduates every year, evenly divided between sciences and arts, who bring a wide range of intellectual, sporting and other interests. We take a keen interest in students’ careers: our Bridge to Business programme, funded by the generosity of a former student, is particularly popular.
We also have a strong commitment to graduate students and graduate study. Graduate students form an increasing proportion of the Hall and represent a diverse population of students from across the world studying a wide range of subjects.
With our roots in the early 13th century, we are the only medieval academic Hall to have survived. St Edmund Hall formally became a college on being granted a Royal Charter in 1957. Our architecture is a happy blend of ancient and modern. The library was the medieval church of St Peter-in-the-East, a large and beautiful building; much of the front quadrangle is 16th- and 17th-century; the remainder of our buildings are modern.
Our graduates include Terry Jones (of Monty Python), John Wells (co-founder of Private Eye), Anna Botting (Sky News journalist) and Dr Michael Nazir-Ali (former Bishop of Rochester).

The UK national debt is currently the highest it's ever been, and a lot larger than many other countries. This talk takes a look behind the figures, and asks why it is important, whether we should be worried, and looks at the reasons for its growth.

Did medieval writers think they were writing history? This talk takes a closer look at the various forms of ‘history’ during this period. Emily A. Winkler is (John Cowdrey Junior Research Fellow in History).

Why has the recent detection of gravitational waves been one of the most important discoveries in modern times for astrophysics? And what are the implications of the new Advanced LIGO gravitational-wave detector for future discoveries about black holes?

How do people remember the past? Alex Lloyd (Lecturer, German Language and Literature) looks at essays written by children in Germany after the Second World War–examining the words and tone; the political framing; and the challenges for translating them.

This talk focusses on a first edition of the collected works of Jan Hus, from the collection in St Edmund Hall’s Old Library, written in the fifteenth century but first printed in 1558 together with letters of recommendation from Martin Luther.

Merchants’ marks were used initially as a tool of commerce, on consignments of goods, in the Middle Ages. In the sixteenth century, however, they became more like a coat of arms for people who didn’t have one – a form of professional identity.

Paul Johnson (Professor of Paediatric Surgery) gives a talk on a new treatement for Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease where the patient’s body has attacked its own insulin-producing cells.

Jaz Hill-Valler (DPhil student, Experimental Radio Cosmology) gives an introduction to the work of radio astronomers by postgraduate student Jaz, who works with the Experimental Radio Cosmology group and Department of Astrophyics.

Can you view studying abroad as an apprenticeship in democracy? Maia Chankseliani discusses her work, which focusses on former Soviet Union countries, linking student mobility with the level of democratic development in the student’s home country.

Tom discusses how Shakespeare’s age thought about thinking. In particular, he looks at the transformative power of thought and the idea in some of Shakespeare’s works that the mind is free to create its own world.

Our research uses brain imaging techniques such as MRI, to assess changes in brain activity or brain structure. We then try to use this information to design new interventions to improve healthy ageing or boost recovery from stroke.

Professor Xiaolan Fu (Director of the Technology and Management of Development Centre, Department of International Development at the University of Oxford) speaks on the subject of industrial upgrading and technology policies in China.

Stand-up comedian Stewart Lee (Honorary Fellow and alumnus of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford) discusses the fantasy that stand-up comedy is spontaneous rather than written, and describes the evolution of stand-up over the last few decades.

This Geddes lecture, marking the 30th anniversary of Philip Geddes' death in the Harrods bombing is by the Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes CH, the Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Chairman of the BBC Trust.

Linda Yueh talks to Jonathan Michie about the credit crunch and looming global recession, the effect it has had on both banks and businesses, and how a Green New Deal may provide a solution to the crisis.